Summer event teaches Columbus kids basic safety skills
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Kids across the city of Columbus are learning about the basics of keeping themselves safe this summer at Safety City.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the City of Columbus teamed up for the third year of the program. Safety City is free for kids ages five to seven and they spend four days learning about safety skills organizers say everyone should know.
“Our hope is that they are able to kind of put some basic safety skills into practice,” said Katie Higgins, a Nationwide Children’s Hospital manager who is also in charge of Safety City. “So knowing how to cross the street and look both ways, we teach them stop, drop and roll, avoiding anything that might be poisonous.”
During the four days of Safety City, the kids learned how to properly stop, drop and roll when their clothes are on fire, what to do if there is a fire, how to approach animals in a safe way, pedestrian and biking safety near busy areas and more.
Jeffrey Spikes’ six-year-old daughter is participating in Safety City. He said he talks to her about safety, but he wants her to hear from the experts. “I just want to make sure she knows how to keep herself safe from top to bottom, whether it’s vehicles, whether it’s in the park, with friends, with family or whether it’s with herself at home,” said Spikes. “I just want to make sure of any kind of information she can get to help her keep herself safe.”
Spikes said he is glad the city has programming like this for his daughter’s age group because it helps keep everyone in Columbus safe. “It’s beneficial to the kids, beneficial to the community. I just hope all of them have a good time and she comes back telling me what she learned so I can spread it to other kids,” said Spikes.
Higgins and other Safety City leaders said this is the perfect age for kids to learn the basics and retain the information throughout their lives. “We want to make sure that we are teaching this generation of kids this very valuable safety knowledge,” said Higgins.